10. Imperilled Welfare States of Eastern Africa: A Comparative Analysis of the Policy Legacies of Taxation Politics in Kenya and Uganda

This chapter discusses the colonial policy legacies of the twenty-first century in the Eastern African state. It interrogates subsequent inequalities created through taxation regimes and the manipulation of notions of welfare. The chapter shows how Kenya and Uganda, for example, have not been able to decolonise from the economic and fiscal inequalities created by the British Empire after political independence and how a new form of post-independence fiscal relations emerged that prevented the two states from financing their own welfare states. While domestic tax systems should have the ability to evolve independently, post-colonial tax systems, such as those in Eastern Africa, evolved with pressures from outside. Even today, normative tax regimes in these states are shaped by the former colonising powers’ social, economic and political structuration, creating power asymmetries and inequalities. Consequently, Eastern Africa’s post-colonial fiscal regimes resonate with their historical past. The chapter discusses how the post-colonial tax state continues to serve the interests of foreign capital, arguing that in maintaining the capitalist status quo, the Kenyan and Ugandan tax systems continue to inhibit redistribution towards becoming a welfare state. Therefore, as Agenda 2063 aspires to realise inclusive growth and Sustainable Development, African governments should strategically address colonial legacies of inequality plaguing their economies.